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The Flash: Jay Garrick Finally Coming to DC Rebirth

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While Batman and The Flash unravel the mysteries of Rebirth, Jay Garrick may finally make an appearance.

NewsMike Cecchini
Feb 27, 2017

Still notable by their absence from DC's fine return to form with their Rebirth initiative are many of the core members of the Justice Society. Sure, Earth 2: Society has just wrapped, but that's not exactly the Rebirth version of the team that was first hinted at in the DC Universe: Rebirth special back in May.

Y'see, one of the side effects of the New 52 was that the concept of the Justice Society as Earth's first team of superheroes, who then inspired future generations, was lost. But Rebirth indicated that they existed, but were somehow wiped from everybody's memory. Of course, the reasoning for that appears to be meddling from none other than Watchmen's Doctor Manhattan, a plot point that has been a little contentious with fans, even if the general consensus is that across the publishing line, Rebirth finally feels like the DC Comics we've been missing for a few years.

And even those skeptical about how the whole "Watchmen characters in the DC Universe" thing will work out (including this writer) seem to be enjoying the slow build as more clues are revealed in a select handful of books. But that slow reveal is going to accelerate in April with "The Button," a four-part story that's rolling out across issues #21-22 of both Batman and The Flash. "The Button" will see the Fastest Man Alive and the World's Greatest Detective get together to finally figure out what the heck the Comedian's button was doing in the Batcave, and from the looks of things, it's going to call back to the reality altering events of Flashpoint, which is how we ended up with the New 52 in the first place.

Here's the official word on "The Button" courtesy of DC:

"The two greatest detectives in the DC Universe unite to unravel the mystery behind a certain blood stained smiley face button stuck in the Batcave wall. However, what begins as a simple investigation soon turns deadly when the secrets of the button prove irresistible to an unwelcome third party – and it’s not who anyone suspects! This is a mystery woven throughout time, and the countdown starts here!"

That "unwelcome third party" is the original Reverse-Flash. There's a cool lenticular cover that was part of this reveal, but for some reason it's not displaying in this article properly, so you'll have to take my word for it. Luckily, there's another pleasant surprise that I actually can show you.

The first image from The Flash #22 is of a familiar speedster who hasn't been seen in anything resembling his classic duds since 2011: Jay Garrick.

Check it out:

OK, so...as someone who counts Garrick as his favorite speedster, this is a pretty killer image. While lightly updated, this is very much the classic Jay Garrick Flash look, and it fits in with the overall "respect the past but have a little fun with things" aesthetic of Rebirth redesigns. Making Garrick the first member of the classic JSA to properly return makes perfect sense, as his first meeting with Barry Allen in The Flash #123 in 1961 is what introduced the very concept of the Multiverse to the DC Universe. If "The Button" ends up touching on a kind of modern "Flash of Two Worlds" vibe, I'm down.

The creative teams on "The Button" are Tom King and Jason Fabok (Batman) and Josh Williamson and Howard Porter (The Flash), and these are two of DC's better books right now. The fun begins on April 19th. 


The Lizzie Bennet Diaries to Be Re-Released in Real Time

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Lizzie Bennet Diaries creator Bernie Su shared details about the web series' re-release at this past weekend's NerdCon.

NewsKayti Burt
Feb 27, 2017

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is coming up on its fifth anniversary, and the Emmy-winning web series is celebrating in a very cool way: by re-releasing all of its episodes and social media content in real time via Facebook. 

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries co-creator/showrunner Bernie Su made the Lizzie Bennet Diaries 5 announcement at this past weekend's NerdCon: Nerdfighteria in Boston, telling fans that Pemberley Digital will be releasing two episodes a week (just like it did during its initial run) starting in April.

Why re-release The Lizzie Bennet Diaries?

Su went into details about why he and the other Lizzie Bennet Diaries creators wanted to re-release the series, and specifically on Facebook, saying:

Why are we doing it? We're exposing it to a new audience ... We want people to experience it at least sort of like it was when we first did it. 

Lizzie Bennet Diaries 5 is for the people who weren't around for the initial run from April 9th, 2012 to March 28th, 2013, as well as for the people who might not be social media savvy to figure out how to experience the transmedia web experience. After all, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries story spans five YouTube channels and across multiple social media platforms, including Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and Pinterest.

The original Lizzie Bennet Diaries audience was not only 90 percent female-identifying, but broke down specifically to 70 percent women and girls under the age of 25. Su elaborated:

There's a group called the Jane Austen Society of America, and I've spoken at a few of their events, and those of you who've been to those events know that those events skew a little older. They're definitely over 25, and a lot of them aren't social media savvy. And what I am trying to do with this is I'm trying to give them the opportunity to jump in, to say, 'Hey, Jane Austen superfans who missed the opportunity to watch it the first time, I'm going to try to give you a very simple way to do it to see it again.'

Su also spoke about how The Lizzie Bennet Diaries 5 will restore content that is no longer available due to the evolution of the internet and the rise and fall of certain platforms and services. For example, when The Lizzie Bennet Diaries was released, Twitter didn't have its own photo or video content system, so the series used yfrog to post content with tweets. yfrog is now defunct, which means some content is no longer available. "We're gonna try to refresh that so people can still enjoy that," Su said.

Will there be new Lizzie Bennet Diaries content?

One of the big questions that inevitably goes along with a Lizzie Bennet Diaries re-release is whether or not we will get new content. Su said that Pemberley Digital is planning some behind-the-scenes content and analysis, for example they would like to do a monthly book-to-show analysis similar to the presentation Su gave at Nerdcon prior to the LBD5 announcement.

Su also mentioned the photo series star Ashley Clements released last month, hinting at a follow-up The Lizzie Bennet Diaries project called The Lizzie Bennet Wedding...

Su stressed that any new content was still TBA and that, as is the nature of Hollywood, projects in development are never certain until they are pretty much made. Or, as he put it: "Nothing is for real until it's for real ... I'm just gonna say that there are things being worked on right now."

(Side note: Wil Wheaton is in The Lizzie Bennet Wedding photo? This is one of those things you didn't know you wanted until you saw it.)

Where to Watch The Lizzie Bennet Diaries Online

If you don't feel like waiting until April to watch The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, you have plenty of options of how to watch the web series in the mean time. You can check it out on YouTube, of course. It is also available via Google Play, Amazon Video, and iTunes.

Pemberley Digital also has a list of all the links to experience The Lizzie Bennet Diaries across all platforms.

Shade the Changing Girl #6 - Exclusive First Look

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We have a preview of the next issue of Young Animal's best book, Shade the Changing Girl!

NewsJim Dandy
Feb 27, 2017

DC sent us an exclusive first look at next week's Shade the Changing Girl #6, including one of the awesome Guidebook pages that are in the back of every Young Animal comic.

Here's what they have to say about the issue.

SHADE, THE CHANGING GIRL #6 Written by CECIL CASTELLUCCIArt by MARLEY ZARCONECover by BECKY CLOONANVariant cover by MARLEY ZARCONERetailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for details.When Shade took over Megan’s body, Megan had to go somewhere—and that she did. The displaced Earthling flew across the galaxy and back, and now that she’s home, Megan is pissed! It’s alien invader versus teenage bully in the climactic conclusion of our first arc!

Young Animal has been an unquestionable success this far. Under Gerard Way's curation, the line feels like an updated Vertigo: weird takes on DC-adjacent superhero stuff created with a great deal of craft and attention to detail.

All of the books are great. Doom Patrol feels like Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol only Americanized and accessible; Mother Panic is two or three f-words away from just being a great Batman-family book; and Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye is like Michael Avon Oeming doing Hellboy.

But Shade is the best of the bunch. It feels like Cecil Castellucci is doing an excellent job of presenting an honest examination of how weird it is to be a teenage girl (I typed unironically, knowing full well that I am a mid-30s man) by dropping a thoroughly bizarre alien in the body of one. Marley Zarcone and Kelly Fitzpatrick's art is perfectly matched to Castellucci's story, making Shade/Megan's movements just as awkward as the scripting and interactions are, while at the same time making it so fluid and beautiful that you feel the oddness of the interactions just by looking at the body language or the layout or the color scheme.

This comic is great. Check it out!

Suicide Squad 2: Mel Gibson Confirms Early Talks

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Warner Bros. is in "early talks" with Mel Gibson to direct Suicide Squad 2.

NewsMike Cecchini
Feb 28, 2017

Page 1 of 3Deadpool 2: The Cable Casting Hunt Continues

While David Ayer's next DC Universe movie priority appears to be the Harley Quinn led Gotham City Sirens movie, don't rule out a sequel to the movie that introduced her to the big screen. Warner Bros. is still game for Suicide Squad 2. Considering the first film broke August box office records and took in an impressive $745 million worldwide, this shouldn't be a surprise.

But what is a surprise is who they want to direct it. Presumably Mr. Ayer will be too busy with Gotham City Sirens to handle Suicide Squad 2. Enter Mel Gibson, whose most recent directorial effort, Hacksaw Ridge is up for Best Picture at this year's Academy Awards, and which landed him a Best Director nomination, too. 

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Gibson is in "early talks" with Warner Bros. for the Suicide Squad 2 directing job. It's almost tough to imagine Gibson going from the weighty themes of Hacksaw Ridgeand its subsequent acclaim to a sequel to a movie that received a critical savaging in 2016, but here we are. THR is quick to point out that "no official offer has been made nor has any commitment." 

Gibson confirmed the talks to Entertainment Tonight, saying, ""I just met some guys about story points. It's not a done deal or anything. But it's just fun to shoot the bull when it comes to stories. And if we can elevate any kind of concept it's good. We'll see."

It should be noted that he isn't the only director being discussed, either. Life director Danny Espinosa is also reportedly in the mix, and there will probably be more names surfacing shortly. Variety adds Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) and Jonathan Levine (Warm Bodies) to that mix, too.

But the fact that WB is considering a director like Gibson does underline their commitment to director focused projects, even with the currently struggling DC Extended Universe. They replaced Ben Affleck with the well-regarded Matt Reeves on The Batman recently, and other names that were mentioned in connection with that project included George Miller and even Ridley Scott. Maybe Gibson makes sense after all.

There's no release date yet for Suicide Squad 2, and it seems that Gotham City Sirens is the higher priority for the studio at the moment. But you'll get your next taste of the DCEU with Wonder Woman on June 2, 2017.

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Page 1 of 3Deadpool 2: The Cable Casting Hunt Continues

Hellboy III is Not Happening, Guillermo del Toro Confirms

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While director Guillermo del Toro had hopes for Hellboy III, it was apparently nixed before it got off the ground.

NewsJoseph BaxterJohn Saavedra
Feb 21, 2017

Hellboy fans had a ray of hope last month when the film franchise’s writer/director Guillermo del Toro suddenly took to Twitter with a poll (albeit a rigged one,) designed to gauge the interest of a potential audience for a long-belated third film entry. After an enthusiastic, “Hell, yes,” dominated over a tepid, but positive, “Yes,” del Toro again whetted appetites with a subsequent tweet promising a sit-down with star Ron Perlman and creator Mike Mignola. Unfortunately, del Toro’s latest Twitter update was no so auspicious.

Del Toro took to Twitter this morning, officially revealing that plans for Hellboy III were cancelled before they even formally started. Sounding dejected, del Toro broke that bit of bad news in a way akin to ripping off a Band-Aid, quickly and with a sobering sense of finality, stating, “100% the sequel will not happen.” While del Toro didn't reveal why Hellboy III was nixed, it does seem that some unforgiving practical realities arose during del Toro’s sit-down with key Hellboy personnel. Moreover, it is worth noting that back in October star Ron Perlman stated that he was too busy to tackle a prospective Hellboy III, though he did leave a little leeway, also saying that he’d be up for it “one day.”

Yet, it does seem that the “one day” in which Perlman – now 66 years-old – dons the cumbersome red makeup and prosthetics to again become cinema’s favorite cigar-chomping, hard-drinking hell-spawn won’t be happening, probably ever. Besides Perlman’s unavailability, Del Toro’s docket isn’t exactly flexible, with directorial projects in an upcoming dark-styled animated version of Pinocchio and romantic fantasy film The Shape of Water to go along with projects to which he’s attached as producer such as film sequel Pacific Rim: Uprising, dark DC superhero team-up Justice League Dark and the imminently-concluding FX series The Strain.

Del Toro’s 2004 original Hellboy– adapting Mike Mignola’s macabre Dark Horse comic series – was an arguably paradigmatic cinematic offering arriving about 4 years before the current epoch of comic book movies. While it didn’t exactly break the bank with a $99 million global take on the back of a hefty $66 million budget, fan enthusiasm and del Toro’s willpower incited an unlikely 2008 sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army, which performed a lot better with $160 million global on the back of an $85 million budget. With the franchise being dormant for nearly a decade, it’s reasonable to assume that an evolving budget/expected-gross ratio and an over-crowded comic book film scene were additional factors in the preemptive demise of Hellboy III.

Regardless, it’s a disappointing day for Hellboy fans and del Toro.

Our original article below as it appeared on January 18, 2017:

Guillermo del Toro Wants You to Vote on the Fate of Hellboy 3

When it comes to long-buried sequels that totally should still happen, Hellboy 3 is at the top of the list. I know it, you know it, Ron Perlman knows it, and Mike Mignola knows it. Best of all, monster movie auteur Guillermo del Toro knows it. Which is why he's launched a new poll on Twitter to get this doomed sequel made:

As you can see, the only real answer is "Yes." What's the catch to this very one-sided poll? Del Toro has promised to sit down with lead actor Perlman and Mignola, creator of Hellboy, to talk about the long-gestating third movie that can't seem to find that precious green light - if the poll gets enough votes.

Of course, this is in no way an indication that this movie will get made, as it would still have to find a studio to call home. It just means that del Toro is considering sitting down to start figuring out how the story could continue. This is definitely encouraging though, considering that only a few months ago Perlman suggested Hellboy 3 was dead because they were all just too busy to get back to work on this. 

And it's not like del Toro is less busy than he was back in October. He's in the middle of filming his new movie, The Shape of Water(which is coincidentally a movie about a fish man who sounds a lot like Abe Sapien), and producing the Pacific Rim sequel. He's also working on a movie adaptation based on the classic children's book Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. There's also that long-gestating vampire wrestler indie film, tentatively titled "Silver," which del Toro is dying to make. Even if something good were to come out of del Toro's meeting with Perlman and Mignola, Hellboy 3 would still be a way's away. 

But, if you're one of those fans dying to see the sequel finally happen, you can at least let your voice be heard on del Toro's Twitter.

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IFC Buys J.D. Salinger Biopic Rebel in the Rye

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J.D. Salinger biopic is coming to theaters from IFC. Isn't that grand?

NewsTony Sokol
Feb 28, 2017

“I like it when somebody gets excited about something,” says teen rebel Holden Caulfield in the book Cather in the Rye. “It's nice.” IFC Films announced that it bought North American distribution rights to Danny Strong's J.D. Salinger biopic Rebel in the Rye. The film Rye is based on the book J. D. Salinger: A Life by Kenneth Slawenski.

Rebel in the Rye premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in late January. It will hit theaters in the fall of 2017. The film stars Nicholas Hoult as the reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye and features Kevin Spacey, Zoey Deutch and Sarah Paulson as Salinger’s first literary agent. The film also stars Hope Davis, Victor Garber and Brian d'Arcy James.

“I don't exactly know what I mean by that, but I mean it.”

Rebel in the Rye tell the story of the writer as a young man as he is beginning to write his iconic masterpiece The Catcher in the Rye. Starting from his mentorship under professor Whit Burnett (Kevin Spacey) at Columbia University the film moves through his experiences during World War II to his relationship with Oona O’Neill (Zoey Deutch) who dated Salinger before she married Charlie Chaplin in 1943.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Logan: The Greatest Wolverine Villains

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With Logan making what might be his final big screen bow, we look at the history of unfortunate bad guys he's faced off with.

FeatureMarc Buxton
Mar 1, 2017

It’s not easy being a member of Wolverine’s rogues gallery. Other villains have it easy. I mean, if you’re a Superman villain, what’s the worst that’s going to happen? You’ll find yourself tied up with a lamp post? What about Spider-Man? Webbed to a wall? That’s not so permanent. Even Batman foes have it relatively easy. Yeah, you might need dental surgery after getting slammed with a batarang, but you’ll live to fight another day.

But Wolverine? If one crosses Wolverine, one will find six unbreakable razor sharp claws buried in one’s aortic valve. Now that’s permanent. Maybe that’s why Wolverine’s list of foes isn’t that long. Wolverine has faced many enemies, but most of them find themselves taking a dirt nap after the encounter.

But there have been those that survived and have returned to bedevil the berserker mutant again and again. On this list, we tried to focus on foes that Wolverine have taken on solo, but some of his battles he fought against villains alongside the X-Men were so personal to Wolverine, we just had to mention these unrepentant killers...

Omega Red

First appearance X-Men #4 (1992)

Created by Jim Lee and John Byrne

As any Logan aficionado knows, Wolverine was created by the top secret Weapon X program. The scientists of Weapon X took Logan and bonded unbreakable adamantium to his bones and created the most feral X-Man of all. But Logan isn’t the only creation to come out of Weapon X. Russian soldier Arkady Rossovich also underwent Weapon X experimentation and became the murderous Omega Red.

Omega Red is long overdue for a film appearance because there’s just so much badass going on with this pony-tailed killer. He has a healing factor like Wolverine, he is bonded with an unbreakable substance known as carbonadium (which is like a flaccid version of adamantium- hey, there you go, Omega Red is the flaccid Wolverine. No wonder Rossovich hates Logan so much), he is able to suck the life force off others using his carbonadium tentacles essentially making him a Russian assassin vampire mutant spree killer. Omega Red has been a constant foe to Wolverine and the X-Men, but the Weapon X connection also makes this tentacle versus claw rivalry personal.

We love Omega Red because he is every 1990s comic book trope rammed together. Pony tale, snarling, great hair, and Wolverine derivative. We adore you Omega Red, you creepy anime-haired tentacle vampire, and we hope to see you in live action one day.

Magneto

First appearance X-Men #1 (1963)

Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Yeah, we know, Magneto is the X-Men’s ultimate enemy, not just Wolverine’s. Heck man, these days Magneto runs with the X-Men as he has become a reluctant hero in the Marvel Universe. But listen, Magneto once tore out Wolverine’s skeleton, so that makes them mortal enemies forever and ever because you just don’t go around tearing out people’s skeletons. You just don’t.

In fairness, Magneto tore out the adamantium lining Wolverine’s bones not the whole skeleton, but still, that totally counts as a dick move (if you tore out the lining of an android’s skeleton, that would be a Philip K. Dick move...sorry...sorry).

Wolverine did avenge himself when he recovered, and totally sliced Mags to ribbons. Of course, Logan did get his adamantium back, but still, the moment that Magneto pulled out the adamantium from Logan’s bones through Wolverine’s pores, ass, and nostrils is forever burned in X-lore, making Magneto and Wolverine eternal rivals.

Sabretooth

First appearance Iron Fist #14 (1977)

Created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne

Wait, Sabretooth first appeared in Iron Fist? That’s so weird. Considering Sabretooth went on to become Wolverine’s greatest foe, it seems odd that the most murderous mutant of all first appeared in a random issue of Iron Fist. That’s like Lex Luthor making his debut in an Hourman comic.

Anyway, fans first thrilled to the Wolverine and Sabretooth rivalry during the Mutant Massacre. Sabretooth was a member of the Marauders, a team of hired killers that were paid to take out the sewer dwelling Morlocks. During the conflict, Wolverine ran afoul of Sabretooth and the two tore into each other. From that battle, it was clear that Logan and Sabretooth had a bloody hatred for each other that stretched back decades.

Since then, it has been revealed that Sabretooth and Logan used to be comrades in arms until things turned sour. Then, Sabretooth murdered a woman named Silver Fox, one of Logan’s great loves and this bloody hatred was born. X-lore hints that Sabretooth and Wolverine may be brothers, but X-continuity is about as tenuous and as difficult to understand as Donald Trump’s cabinet picks. Whatever the case, Sabretooth has dedicated his life to tormenting Wolverine.

The rivalry leaked over onto the big screen twice, but the first X-Men film and the deservedly maligned X-Men Origins: Wolverine do not capture the bloody majesty of the Wolverine/Sabretooth war that has been raging on comics for centuries. These days, Wolverine is dead and Sabretooth is a good guy, but you just know a resurrection and a heel turn will happen at some point and the X-Universe will be red in tooth and claw once again.

William Stryker

First appearance X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills (1982)

Created by Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson

In the comics, William Stryker was a politician and a televangelist sworn to eradicate all mutants. Stryker makes the alt.right look like open minded relief aids working in a soup kitchen. In the classic God Loves, Man Kills graphic novel, Stryker tried to murder a young Kitty Pryde on national TV. Disgraced, Stryker swore to kill the X-Men to keep God fearing humanity safe from the demonic mutant scourge.

Stryker is an X-Men foe in the comics, but in the world of film, Stryker is the greatest human evil Wolverine ever faced. Brian Cox played Stryker to perfection in X2: X-Men United and in this damn near perfect film, it was revealed that Stryker was the head of the Weapon X project and was responsible for creating Wolverine.

Stryker was brought back in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (portrayed by Danny Huston) and serves as the film’s main antagonist. Josh Helman plays a younger version of Stryker in X-Men: Days of Future Pastand X-Men: Apocalypse, further solidifying William Stryker as Wolverine’s greatest film foe.

Lady Deathstrike

First appearance As Yuriko Oyama: Daredevil #197 (1983) As Lady Deathstrike: Alpha Flight #33 (1986)

Created by Dennis O'Neil, Larry Hama, Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema, Chris Claremont and Barry Windsor-Smith

Jeez Louise, that’s a lot of creators. Lady Deathstrike certainly is gifted with many creative daddies. She is also gifted with a vicious and fascinating history with Wolverine- making this not so good Lady Wolverine’s most enduring female foe.

Deathstrike’s father was the creator of the bonding process that was used to attach the adamantium to Wolverine’s skeleton. She felt like her father’s work was stolen and dishonored, so Deathstrike swore to destroy anyone who had adamantium in their bodies. This brought her into conflict with Wolverine as she vowed to steal his bones to restore honor to her family. Now, that’s nasty!

Deathstrike underwent an adamantium bonding of her own and became the long fingered psycho killer of X legend. Wolverine and Deathstrike have fought many times as the lady of the unbreakable cuticles has become one of the deadliest and most persistent enemies in Logan’s life.

Silver Samurai

First appearance Daredevil #111 (1974)

Created by Steve Gerber and Bob Brown

Sometime ally, sometime enemy, Silver Samurai is perhaps Wolverine’s deadliest non-mutant foe. After fighting Wolverine a few times in Japan, Silver Samurai became the head of the Yashida crime family after the death of his half-sister Mariko. Now, Wolverine historians know that Mariko was also Wolverine’s great love, so after her death Silver Samurai developed a grudging respect for Wolverine. They have fought side by side many times, defending the Yashida Clan from enemies, but the alliance is tenuous at best and many times the Samurai and Wolverine have clashed claw to sword.

Fans saw that rivalry come to life on film in The Wolverine as the Samurai succeeded in stealing the film universe’s Wolverine’s adamantium. And here’s a fun fact, in the comics, Silver Samurai was the leader of Big Hero 6. Yes, the (sort of) same Big Hero 6 that Disney brought to life in animation a few years back. So from a drug lord to Wolverine’s bitter rival to a man who introduced a franchise that focuses on a big, fat, adorable balloon person, Silver Samurai has truly done it all.

Daken

First appearance Wolverine Origins #10 (2007)

Created by Daniel Way and Steve Dillon

At least this Wolverine foe keeps it in the family. Daken is Wolverine’s son. Born of violence, Wolverine’s scion was torn from the womb of his mother Itsu after she was murdered by the then brainwashed Winter Soldier. Abandoned, the boy is adopted and lives an unhappy childhood. He is given the name Daken which means bastard dog in Japanese. Well, this bastard dog had bite and as he grew, he took on an extremely nihilistic view of the world.

Daken became one of the most skilled assassins the world had ever seen and his chaotic nature and the powers that he inherited from dear old dad brought him into conflict with Logan many times. He joined Norman Osborne’s Dark Avengers and donned his father’s uniform as a profane version of Wolverine. As Dark Wolverine, Daken’s glorified in his violent nature and did everything he could to disgrace his father’s heroic name.

Since then, Wolverine has died and Daken has softened his view on his father. But when Wolverine inevitably returns to life, you can bet Daken will be waiting to once again become Logan’s most personal enemy.

Viper

First appearance Captain America vol.1 #110 (1969)

Created by Jim Steranko

Viper isn’t just one of Wolverine’s most persistent and vile foes, she also happens to be his ex-wife (X-wife?). That’s right, Viper, also known as Madame Hydra so you know she’s evil, once blackmailed Logan into marrying her. Instead of wedded bliss, Viper and Wolverine entered into one of the most hateful nuptial bonds in comic book history. Viper wanted to marry Wolverine so she could join her criminal empire with a criminal enterprise Wolverine oversaw in the lawless nation of Madripoor, but even though the marriage was business oriented, the green haired femme fatale insisted that they consummate the marriage.

So Viper is the only villain on this list that Logan had anger sex with. The marriage ended when Viper was possessed by the spirit of an evil ninja and Wolverine had to stab her to get the malevolent spirit out of her body. In exchange for divorce, Wolverine gave her first aid.

Since then, Viper has had a deep and abiding mad on for her X-hubby. She has returned numerous times to make Wolvie’s life miserable. Logan, you should have swiped left, pal.

Wendigo

First appearance The Incredible Hulk #162 (1973)

Created by Steve Englehart and Herb Trimpe

Every rogues gallery needs a flesh eating bigfoot Yeti thing, and sure enough, Wolverine has one.

Wendigo is a rather terrifying adversary. In the Marvel Universe, there have been a number of hapless souls that have become a Wendigo over the decades. Basically, if someone indulges in cannibalism, whether it is an act of psychosis or survival, that person is cursed to walk the Earth as the always hungry Wendigo. Now, that’s pretty horrifically awesome in and of itself, but Wendigo is so important to Wolverine lore because this white furred hungry beastie was Wolverine’s adversary in Logan’s very first appearance.

That’s right, out of the gate, Wolverine faced off against Wendigo and the Hulk, and as always, Logan lived to tell the tale. So from his very first appearance and his very first enemy, Wolverine was establishes as a hero that never quits.

Even when faced with a flesh hungry super monster, Wolverine will keep clawing until the day is won. Wolverine has faced different Wendigos over the years because evidently the Marvel Universe is lousy with cannibal freaks, but it will always be the first Wendigo that will go down as history as the earliest villain Wolverine squared off against.

Donald Pierce

First appearance Uncanny X-Men #132 (1980)

Created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne

Film fans are about to meet the cybernetic evildoer known as Donald Pierce in Logan, but in the comics, Wolverine has been banging heads with Pierce for decades. Pierce once infiltrated the Hellfire Club by pretending to be a mutant, but in truth, Pierce was a mutant hating racist that wanted to bring about the genocide of the mutant race. Pierce was proud of his humanity which makes it ironic that he gave it all up to become a cyborg killing machine.

As the head of the cybernetic assassin crew known as the Reavers (also about to appear in Logan), Pierce kidnapped, tortured, and crucified Wolverine. This is a fateful moment in mutant history because when Wolverine escaped from this torment, he met Jubilee for the first time and an X legend was born.

Since the crucifixion, Pierce and Wolverine have been blood enemies. Pierce created a Wolverine android named Albert who ended up turning good, but the creation of such a profane and mechanical version of Wolverine showed just how far Pierce was willing to go to humiliate and eradicate Logan. This is a bitter and long fought rivalry, one that is about to come to bloody life in Hugh Jackman’s last film go around as Wolverine.

Mysterio

First appearance The Amazing Spider-Man #13 (1964)

Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

Mysterio is one of Spider-Man’s greatest enemies, and the master of illusion is even among the top Daredevil foes.

But Mysterio also has to considered a Wolverine foe for one simple reason: in the Old Man Loganstoryline, it is Mysterio that uses his illusions to fool Wolverine into thinking his fellow X-Men are super criminals. This illusion forces Wolverine into horrifically slaying his friends and surrogate family. It was at this point that Old Man Logan swore to never pop his claws again.

Old Man Logan might take place in a potential future, but the fact that Mysterio does what Magneto, Mister Sinister, Apocalypse, and legions of Sentinels never did, destroy the X-Men, makes him one of Wolverine’s top foes. Add to the fact that Mysterio tricked Wolverine into doing his dirty work for him, and you have to say that it was Mysterio that caused Wolverine’s greatest defeat in all of the multiverse.

Romulus

First appearance Wolverine #50 (2007) (shadowed) Wolverine: Origins #39 (2009) (Full appearance)

Created by Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi

Very little is known about the man known as Romulus. He is an ancient being whose life stretches back to the Bronze Age where he led tribes of lupine warriors into battle. In modern times, this ancient feral threat is responsible for creating the Weapon X program and also ripping Daken out of his mother’s womb. Right there, Romulus and Logan have a very personal and hate filled rivalry.

Romulus’ motivations are shrouded in mystery, but it seems that he wants to train Wolverine as his replacement as the grand poohbah of the wolf people or something. Romulus stands as a warning of what Logan will become if he allows himself to lose control of the beast within.

The two have fought a number of times with Romulus trying to force Wolverine to descend into a berserker rage that he may never emerge from. Wolverine has resisted the violence of Romulus so far. But the hatred between the two is profound. Romulus is pretty badass himself. He is four claws on each hand where Wolverine has three and he is a killing machine that has abandoned every last vestige of humanity. Wolverine hates Romulus because if Logan ever loses control, he can very easily become Romulus.

Cyber

First appearance Marvel Comics Presents #85 (1991)

Created by Peter David and Sam Kieth

Imagine how tough one would have to be to serve as Wolverine’s drill instructor. That’s exactly what Cyber was, a bullying, brutish authoritarian that made Logan’s life miserable during Wolverine’s World War I military tenure. During this period, the future Cyber beat Logan to an inch of his life and gouged out Logan’s eye. Of course, Logan’s healing factor soon allowed the mutant to regain his peeper, but this beating gave Wolvie a deep fear of Cyber.

Years later, when Wolverine encountered Cyber, even though those fears were deeply buried in Logan’s psyche, they resurfaced as Cyber became one of the very few people in the world that Wolverine fears. But Wolverine is Wolverine and found the testicular fortitude to bury that fear and beat the living crap out of Cyber. That wasn’t easy because Cyber’s skin has been laced with adamantium so the brutish killer essentially has an unbreakable epidermis. This didn’t stop Wolverine however who got the ultimate receipt after he popped out Cyber’s eye during their first modern era battle. How Hammurabi!

Geist

First appearance Wolverine #17

Created by Archie Goodwin and John Byrne

Wow, John Byrne has created a ton of Wolverine foes, huh? Leave it to a Canadian artist to torture a Canadian hero, I guess. This is comics, so you can’t have a greatest villain list without at least one Nazi prick, amiright?

During World War II, Dr. Nikolaus Geist became one of Hitler’s main advisors and helped the Third Reich construct many concentration camps. In the modern era, the aged and infirm Geist built himself a cybernetic suit and used radical limb attachments like saws and scalpels to become one of most feared evil scientists in Marvel history. When Geist started experimenting on mutants, Logan hunted him down and brought an end to Geist’s operations. Wolverine peeled the metal clad Nazi like an onion and left him to die.

Somehow, Hitler’s right hand man survived, until he was discovered by Magneto. As all X fans know, if you’re an evil Nazi scientist, the last mutant you ever want to run into is Magneto. Geist did however survive and join HYDRA, but his time bedeviling Wolverine and the overwhelming evil inherent in every one of Geist’s plans allows this disgusting piece of cybernetic offal to make our list.

Hulk Gang

First appearance Wolverine #66 (2008)

Created by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven

The Hulk Gang also went up against Wolverine on the Old Man Logan universe. In this world where all super heroes have fallen, the Hulk Gang would scour its territory and force any residents to pay rent. If this rent was not paid, death would follow. Essentially, this group of killers were like a bunch of Negans, but imagine if Negan was a Hulk. Yeah, that’s the Hulk gang.

As we mentioned, due to Mysterio’s manipulation that caused Logan to kill the X-Men, the former Wolverine refused to snikt his claws. When the Hulk Gang forced Old Man Logan to pay his rent, the former heroic mutant went on a quest for the cash. When he returned home, he found that the Hulks murdered his wife and children. There was a lot of snikting after that.

The Hulk Gang is made up of a bunch of ignorant and cruel rednecks that are infused with the same powers as Bruce Banner. They are a terrifying gang of thugs that remain perhaps the most intimidating and frightening group of foes that Logan ever faced. But these Hulks still got smashed when they pushed Wolverine to the edge.

Bloodscream and Roughhouse

First appearance Wolverine #4 (1989)

Created by Chris Claremont and John Buscema

One is a mortal vampire the other is a rough and tumble bear of a man with super strength and a penchant for killing, can they find love and happiness in the big city? Where the hell did I go there? What just happened?

So Bloodscream and Roughhouse are two mercenaries for hire that have become sometime mortal enemies and sometimes reluctant allies with Wolverine. Well, Bloodscream is a Nazi vampire so not so much with the ally with him, but Roughhouse and Logan have developed a begrudging respect for one another. In fact, it was Roughhouse that Wolverine was trying to save when he first ran afoul of Geist.

When Logan first met Bloodscream and Roughhouse, the unlikely pair of criminals were working as enforcers for a crime family in Madripoor. When the strongman and the vampire tried to kill Wolverine’s ally Tyger Tiger, a rivalry for the ages was born between the pain of super enforcers and the berserker mutant.

Ogun

First appearance Kitty Pryde & Wolverine #1 (1984)

Created by Chris Claremont and Al Milgrom

This is a Wolverine villain list, we have to have some ninjas up in here. And Ogun is one of the baddest ninjas of all. He has the power to possess people and use their hapless bodies to commit all sorts of heinous deeds. Have you ever been possessed by an evil ninja? It’s not pleasant.

Logan first met Ogun in World War II and at some point became Logan’s sensei. Later, Ogun fell from the path of honor and became the head of a powerful Japanese crime family. Ogun once possessed Kitty Pryde, Wolverine’s X protégé and while dwelling inside the body of the young mutant, he forced years of ninja training into her mind. So Kitty Pryde became a kind of insta-ninja and transformed into a cold blooded killer. Wolverine retrained the suddenly really dangerous young mutant and expelled Ogun’s influence.

Ogun is still a free-floating spirit floating around the Marvel Universe ready to cause havoc should this disembodied dick ever run into Wolverine once again.

Arrow Season 5 Episode 15 Review: Fighting Fire With Fire

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The identity of Prometheus is revealed in a genuinely surprising twist on the latest episode of Arrow.

Page 1 of 3Justice League Movie: Aquaman Footage Revealed

This Arrow review contains spoilers.

Arrow: Season 5, Episode 15

Just when you thought you had a handle on the villains on Season 5, Arrow threw a big old curveball at viewers while expanding the role of its most interesting newcomer. At long last, the identity of one of the year’s two big bads is revealed, as huge shadows of doubt are cast on the other.

This episode promised to be another big bout with the morally ambiguous anti-hero, Vigilante. Plucked directly from the pages of DC Comics, many Arrow fans have thought they’ve known who the man behind the mask was for quite some time. However, all that changed as the bloodthirsty killer took a shot at none other than Mayor Oliver Queen in “Fighting Fire With Fire."

Before we get into the colossal twist of the night, it’s important to note that, for an episode that seemed like it would be a gritty political thriller with a few superheroes thrown in, its tone was surprisingly off. Vigilante wanted to go after Oliver Queen for being corrupt and covering up the Green Arrow’s murder of Detective Malone (which has its own slew of complexities and false flags, but that’s another story for another review).

The episode opened with a pretty good attack on Mayor Queen’s limo, with the dramatic irony of the audience knowing that the limo is filled to the brim with crime-fighting, tough-as-nails vigilantes. The scene was pretty good, but the characters had to pull their punches so as not to out themselves, Oliver included. What followed was a solid 35 minutes of emotionally wrought conversations about morality and what it means to be a true good guy. Typically, these are the exact kinds of things one looks for in a superhero story, but Arrow has more than tapped this well. Frankly, it seems like every episode is about these people struggling with whether or not what they do is a good thing.

There’s nothing wrong with characters becoming self-aware and really examining their role in a larger world. However, from an entertainment standpoint, no one wants to see Bruce Banner complain about being the Hulk… people want to see the Hulk smash. The episode doubled-down on this theme when it came to Thea, who last week flexed her front-facing identity to get a career journalist fired. Now, she had to apologize for being totally badass and playing the chess game of politics better than a former party girl/nightclub manager rightfully should. If we’re going to lean so heavily on the drama surrounding the mayoral plotline, we need a character or two that’s going to actually play politics and suggest things like ruining a dead cop’s reputation or blackmailing a congressman.

But semantics aside, “Fighting Fire With Fire” is still going to go down as an important and historic episode in the series’ canon for the big plot twist that we’ve been putting off talking about. Adrian Chase, who was brought on as the Star City DA, is known to comic book fans as the rogue crime fighter Vigilante. Meanwhile, Team Arrow has been going head-to-head with (yet another) mysterious dark archer known as Prometheus. While comic book fans thought they had one up on the heroes by knowing the identity of Vigilante, this episode threw them through a loop by revealing (after a pretty awesome fight between villains) that Chase is actually Prometheus, leaving the identity of Vigilante a colossal mystery. Seriously, who could Vigilante be now? If we operate under Scooby Doo rules, it seems like Curtis Holt’s husband, Paul, but I wouldn’t start putting your hard-earned American currency down on that particular bet just yet.

As for the future of the show and the direction Season 5 will take, this kind of changes everything. Chase was rapidly becoming a great new ally to Oliver. Their budding friendship, which started in the public eye and quickly moved private, was reminiscent of the chemistry between the hero and John Diggle in Season 1. If it wasn’t for the outside knowledge of knowing who Chase was destined to be based on the source material, some would likely be rooting for him as a new cohort like Curtis was last year. Perhaps this is where we all learn our lesson about Googling new characters ahead of time…? No, never mind, that’s just silly.

So with the show’s future direction a complete mystery, let’s just take a moment and examine the reveal itself. Chase, played very well thus far by actor Josh Segarra, is one of the more interesting additions to a season that’s been constantly bloating with new cast members. In a show that’s been thirsting for characters that aren’t just cut and dry good guys, his brooding charm was a welcome change. Everyone knew there was something more to him than met the eye, and he did a pretty fantastic job of not overplaying that fact with long looks or diabolical grins as characters left the room. It just goes to show, if you’re going to play a sleeper agent, play him or her dead asleep. After a pretty impactful, yet straight across the plate, performance it’s exciting to know that he’s going to get to pull the lid off and go full-on vengeful villain from here on out, diabolical grins and all.

The series has previously set up that Prometheus might be the son of a former victim of The Hood (Season 1 Green Arrow) Justin Claybourne. Even still, how did this person adopt the archer persona that Oliver has made so trendy since 2012? Why did he bother to cosy up to Oliver and go through the schooling to become DA? For real, who the f*** is Vigilante? With just enough episodes to keep it exciting, Arrow has laid out a good old-fashioned plot twist that’s genuinely applause-worthy. Sadly, that doesn’t make “Fighting Fire With Fire” as strong an episode as others.

Another loose end worth addressing is Felicity’s decision to full-on join the morally questionable hacker group known as Helix. She arrived at this conclusion through the use of a clunky, over-used metaphor about fighting fire with fire and getting burned. Meanwhile, Thea let Oliver shame her into quitting her job as his aide. She arrived to this conclusion after suggesting various politically savvy, but morally reprehensible, ways for him to get out of his scandal and realizing it’s the same as her bloodlust last year. However, it’s totally not and one hopes she leaves Star City for D.C.

Lastly, the episode ended on a bummer with a tear-jerking acting moment from Echo Kellum. In it, Curtis met his husband Paul for a dinner that he thought was going to be a reconciliation, only to be served divorce papers by him. He arrived at this conclusion by… being kind of a jerk. Mr. Terrific is awesome, especially now that he’s got his T-Spheres and Paul should be so lucky.

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4/5

Page 1 of 3Justice League Movie: Aquaman Footage Revealed

ReviewTyler McCarthy
Mar 2, 2017

Justice League Movie: Aquaman Footage Revealed

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Zack Snyder just gave us a new look at Aquaman in action. Maybe this means we'll finally get a new Justice League trailer soon.

NewsDen Of Geek Staff
Mar 2, 2017

Page 1 of 3Justice League Movie: Aquaman Footage Revealed

This article contains some Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice spoilers.

This is the one that the DC Extended Universe is building towards. Five years after The Avengers showed us that it was possible to pull off a non-mutant superhero team on the big screen, we'll finally see a JusticeLeaguemovie. Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder has wrapped filming on Justice League, from a script by Batman v Superman's Chris Terrio. 

Like many reveals, the latest bit comes from Zack Snyder himself, who teased fans on Twitter with a look at Aquaman underwater special effects. Check it out...

This looks considerably better than the "Jason Momoa holding his breath in a water tank" sequence from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Maybe this means we'll finally get that new trailer that they've been promising us for months.

Aquaman appears to be rocking the minimalist, shirtless look in that footage, but this next image (which popped up last month) is probably the single best look we've had at Ray Fisher's Cyborg and Jason Momoa in full Aquaman armor so far.

This looks like it could be a shot from a trailer, and since the real trailer for this movie is long overdue, it might well be. Cyborg still looks a little off, but having one of his hands open up into some kind of bizarre weapon (probably sonic if the comics are anything to go by) is pretty cool.

Aquaman's armor is a pretty bold choice, too, but it fits perfectly with the overall aesthetic of the DC Extended Universe so far.

Now, about that trailer.

Justice League Trailer

We're still waiting on a new Justice League trailer, but the first footage arrived at SDCC 2016! This is our first glimpse of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Cyborg, and Aquaman working together on the big screen.

Check out the trailer below:

We did a full analysis on the trailer right here.

You can see some other footage in this video from director Zack Snyder, who posted this awesome behind-the-scenes video which has lots of new looks at the characters in action.

It also looks like we're due to get another Justice League trailer very soon, too.

Justice League Movie Release Date

Justice League is scheduled for a November 17th, 2017 release, with a sequel to follow on June 14th, 2019. The complete DC superhero movie release calendar can be found here.

Justice League Movie Villain

In order for the Justice League to form, they need a threat with power levels that only a team of heroes could take down, right? 

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice made it pretty explicit that Darkseid is on his way to this world, and there were several visual cues for those who are interested. We broke those down (along with lots more comic references in the movie) right here. But he isn't the villain of the Justice League movie. A deleted scene from Batman v Superman released online offered a look at a monstrous creature on a Kryptonian ship, who turned out to be another Fourth World related despot (and Jack Kirby creation), Steppenwolf.

Steppenwolf is basically Darkseid's cousin, a powerful warrior from Apokolips who wields a pretty crazy energy axe. 

The Wrap broke the news that Ciaran Hinds (you may know him as Mance Rayder on Game of Thrones which makes him a particularly cool choice for this part if it's true) has been cast as Steppenwolf. Steppenwolf will be done via motion capture, and his casting has apparently been kept under wraps throughout the production, which recently wrapped principal photography.

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Here's what Steppenwolf looked like in that Batman v Superman deleted scene:

And here's Ciaran Hinds as Mance Rayder. You may start your Photoshop engines accordingly...

It's still inevitable that we'll see Darkseid in these movies, and he'll probably still be a presence in the first one. DC Comics used him as the catalyst for the formation of the Justice League in the current comic book series. He's a pretty big gun to burn this early, though, so holding him back for Justice League Part Two sound about as logical as anything else we've heard.

Lex Luthor is now confirmed to appear, as well. Luthor was last seen at the end of Batman v Superman raving about a villain on the way. Whether he was talking about Steppenwolf or Darkseid remains to be seen, but given that deleted scene, it's probably Steppenwolf.

It looks like maybe, just maybe, Joe Manganiello's Deathstroke will turn up in Justice League after all. Zack Snyder just posted a cryptic image of himself (wearing a Batman gauntlet) and working on storyboards for a scene that do indeed appear to contain Slade Wilson. See for yourself...

Page 1 of 3Justice League Movie: Aquaman Footage Revealed

X-Men Writer Talks Early Casting Ideas, Including Michael Jackson as Professor X

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X-Men writer David Hayter looks back on the casting process for Bryan Singer’s original film, including some shocking casting ideas.

NewsJoseph Baxter
Mar 2, 2017

Page 1 of 3Deadpool 2: The Cable Casting Hunt Continues

With Logan hitting tomorrow, showcasing what will apparently be Hugh Jackman’s final outing in his 17-year cinematic run as Wolverine, the collective fandom is understandably elegiac about the legendary tenure. In a recent interview, screenwriter David Hayter – a key component of Fox's early X-Men movie franchise – discusses some shocking casting prospects that the original production considered in director Bryan Singer’s genre-defining 2000 original film.

Speaking with THR, Hayter looks back on the days of the X-Men film's gestation. Hayter, a name video game connoisseurs will recognize as the perennial voice of Solid Snake in the Metal Gear series, wrote the screenplay to 2000’s X-Men, based on a story collaboration with Singer and Tom DeSanto, later tackling sequel X2: X-Men United and Zack Snyder’s Watchmen. Hayter reveals how X-Men's seminal nature also meant that early casting ideas got kooky, name-dropping some shocking early choices for the cast. Pertinently, while Patrick Stewart – who also recently implied he’s leaving the franchise after Logan– is intrinsically associated with the “older” contemporary iteration of Professor Charles Xavier, it seems that a certain late King of Pop had his eyes on that iconic role. As Hayter explains:

“I was writing it [X-Men] for the comic book characters. I was brought on as they were casting, so I was lucky enough to be there for some of the people who came in like Terence Stamp for Xavier and Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey for Storm. Michael Jackson came in because he wanted to play Professor X. It was amazing. Shaq came in [for Bishop]. Viggo Mortensen came in. I really liked Viggo for Wolverine, but it didn't come together for whatever reason. Angela Bassett was our first choice for Storm, but her agents wanted more money than we had at the time. Same with Rachael Leigh Cook for Rogue.”

Feasible choices aside, it’s surreal to consider that we could have had an onscreen version of Professor Charles Xavier who, rather than putting his fingers to his temple in telepathic concentration, instead grabbed his crotch. While Hayter did cite some genuinely intriguing ideas for the cast, it seems that the original X-Men could have become a shallow celebrity showcase full of inexperienced actors that likely would have ignored the comic book nuances that made the film such a success. Moreover, it would have altered the course of the current comic book movie/TV Renaissance in ways unimaginable. Hayter also explains that the casting of a then-unknown Hugh Jackman for the central role as Wolverine came about in the aftermath of Dougray Scott’s misfortune.

“[Then-Fox executive] Tom Rothman really wanted Dougray Scott to play Wolverine and he was shooting Mission: Impossible 2 and Tom Cruise kept calling Bryan and saying, ‘We just need him a little while longer, a little while longer.’ We were starting to shoot and Wolverine was the lead and we didn't have him. Bryan suspected something was hinky, and so he sent the costume designer down to Australia, ostensibly to get wardrobe shots, but really it was to find out what was going on. What we found out was Dougray had been in a motorcycle accident filming the climax of MI2. He was pretty messed up. It was a real shame he couldn't do it. And Hugh had been somebody who had been in the mix earlier and it was [executive producer] Lauren Shuler Donner who said, ‘Why don't we bring him?’”

In the very early stages, Wolverine became the choice protagonist by the creative team, notably because he was conceived as being played by Mel Gibson. However, by the time the role fell into Jackman’s lap, the choice – seemingly contradictory to the ensemble-based Marvel Comic – was serendipitous, since Jackman’s performance brought an identifiable humanity to the character that, arguably, isn’t quite there in the rougher-edged comic book version. Similarly, Hayter reveals that Halle Berry’s role as Storm also expanded tremendously in 2003’s X2 after the screen capital she earned in-between films from her Monster’s Ball Oscar win. Hayter’s last contribution to the series saw him loosely consulting with director Brett Ratner on the series’ (much-maligned) 2006 third entry X-Men: The Last Stand.

Logan will be see a certain “Old Man” pass the torch before walking off into the comic book movie sunset when it hits theaters on March 3.

Page 1 of 3Deadpool 2: The Cable Casting Hunt Continues

The Shack Review

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Sam Worthington meets God – in the form of Octavia Spencer – in The Shack. Sadly, there is nothing very sublime about it.

Page 1 of 3Deadpool 2: The Cable Casting Hunt Continues

Based on a best-selling novel by William P. Young that was initially self-published before being picked up by major publisher Hachette (and not without some legal wrangling over the actual authorship along the way), The Shack is a faith-based film that tells the story of Mackenzie “Mack” Phillips (Sam Worthington), a husband, father, and devoutly religious man whose youngest daughter is abducted from a campsite while on a family trip. With only her bloody clothes found in an abandoned shack near the camp, Mack spirals into a deep depression and undergoes a tremendous crisis of faith – until he one day receives a mysterious note in his mailbox.

The note is signed “Papa,” a painful reminder of Mack’s own tortured history with his father, but also the nickname his wife Nan (Radha Mitchell) uses to refer to God. The note asks Mack to visit “Papa” at the same shack where his daughter’s clothes were found – and Mack, thinking more that this is a taunt from his daughter’s abductor than an actual message from the Almighty – makes for the isolated forest in which the shack lies waiting.

There, he finds not his child’s presumed killer but watches as the shack is transformed into a beautiful, inviting cottage – where he is encouraged to stay by “Papa” (Octavia Spencer), as well as a Middle Eastern carpenter (Aviv Alush) who never gives his name but which you can only guess. There's also a young Asian woman named Sarayu (Sumire Matsubara), whose actual identity in this trinity is quickly established as well.

Up to this point, The Shack is a slow-moving yet mildly engaging mystery, at least if you've never read the book, even as it's hampered by the TV-movie panache of its director Stuart Hazeldine (whose only other feature credit is the little-seen 2009 psychological thriller Exam), not to mention the wooden performances from Worthington (his accent noticeably slipping throughout the entire film), Mitchell, and country singer Tim McGraw as his befuddled, almost unbelievably patient neighbor.

When we reach the shack, however, the movie comes to a standstill as Mack and his three hosts (no pun intended) begin a long, tedious series of conversations about forgiveness, redemption, the nature of God and guilt – with the only spark coming from Spencer’s usual energy and her way with a few of the more comic lines (“I am…who I am;” “See? We’re already quoting Scripture.”)

Interestingly, it was apparently some of God’s more irreverent dialogue, as well as the diverse personification of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that drew criticism of the novel when The Shackfirst came out. After all, we can’t have two of the Holy Trinity appear in the bodies of non-Caucasian women (and how refreshing it is to see a Christ that actually looks as how the ethnic Jesus might have appeared).

That nod toward the diversity of a true God is one of the few bright spots of the film, especially given the lily-white, picture-perfect, church-centric conservative fantasyland where Mack and his family and friends reside. It’s too bad, however, that Alush and Matsubara can’t keep up with Spencer; both seem only capable of smiling vacantly while delivering their platitudes flatly.

Platitudes and nuggets of supposed insight, often couched in enigmatic statements (“Can’t you stop talking in riddles?” cries an anguished Worthington at one point, and we can’t help but feel his misery while he waits for those Avatarsequels to get going), make up the bulk of the conversation in the film.

Mack also engages in activities like digging up a garden with Sarayu, debating with the embodiment of God's wisdom (Alice Braga) and, in one unintentionally comic sequence, walking across a lake with Jesus. Round and round they go, and by the time the film reaches a darker sequence toward the end that is supposed to make us feel the full weight of Mack’s grief, the viewer is so disengaged that instead you will feel nothing.

At least this viewer didn’t; the problem with most faith-based films is that they are – pun intended this time – always preaching to the converted, and the story must ultimately fit the agenda. It’s a foregone conclusion that Mack will rekindle his faith – it’s no spoiler to tell you that – and as a result, The Shack has no real tension or conflict throughout its hefty 132 minutes. The entire story is so pre-ordained to fit the expectations of an audience of true believers that it locks out pretty much everyone else and quickly ossifies into a sermon instead of a real movie.

Some other aspects of the book, such as Papa playing a role in Mack's personal investigation into the disappearance of his daughter, are altered from the novel. Luckily, we are spared those even more incredulous moments in the screen version of The Shack; too bad we weren’t spared the rest of this sanctimonious and stilted film too.

The Shack is out in theaters Friday, March 3.

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2/5

Page 1 of 3Deadpool 2: The Cable Casting Hunt Continues

ReviewDon Kaye
Mar 2, 2017

Logan: Complete Guide to Marvel Universe and X-Men Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

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Did you catch all the references to Marvel, X-Men, and Old Man Logan? There are plenty of cool easter eggs if you know where to look!

FeatureMike CecchiniGavin Jasper
Mar 2, 2017

This article contains nothing but Logan spoilers. Don't read unless you've seen the movie!

Logan is barely what you would consider a superhero movie, and it's one of the very select few in recent years that has decided to throw most of the things you ordinarily associate with this genre right out the window. But that doesn't mean it isn't still steeped in Marvel and X-Men lore, and there are lots of neat things, both comic related and otherwise, floating around in the margins that are still worth pointing out.

We'll start with the source material.

Old Man Logan

Logan is very (and we mean very) loosely based on Mark Millar and Steve McNiven's "Old Man Logan" story, which ran in the main Wolverinecomic between 2008-2009. "Old Man Logan" was never intended to be Logan's "real" future, but rather a kind of alternate reality where the creative team got to have a little fun with the Marvel Universe.

And make no mistake, that comic was heavily set in the Marvel Universe. Really, the only thing it has in common with this movie is the fact that it features Logan (as an "old man") and a road trip. In the comic, Logan's traveling partner isn't Professor Xavier, but Hawkeye, and the villains include the descendants of Bruce Banner as inbred Hulk-like gang members. The USA is a Marvel dystopia divided up among the Hulks, Red Skull, a new Kingpin, and others, because all the heroes died decades back.

Now, you can say there's a similarity to the death of nearly all the superheroes and the fact that the X-Men in this movie are dead/disbanded and no new mutants are being born, and you'd be right to do it. 

Revealed in snippets, it appears that the remaining X-Men were killed by Xavier having a seizure. While the Logan film only resembles Old Man Logan in the most skeletal sense, this reveal appears to be a twist on how things went down in the comic. In the comic, Wolverine killed off the X-Men single-handed due to a mental attack (via Spider-Man baddie Mysterio), which led to him being spiritually defeated. Instead, the film uses that concept as a red herring, showing that Xavier killed off the X-Men single-handedly due to a mental attack.

But that's pretty much where the similarities to the source material end, though. And trust us, Logan is a far more nuanced story than the comic.

Caliban

- Caliban was created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum, first showing up in Uncanny X-Men #148 back in 1981. A mutant with the power to track other mutants, he was one of the founding members of the Morlocks and was essentially their living Cerebro. Like in Logan, Caliban switched from villain to redemptive hero, as he was part of Apocalypse’s thrall on two occasions (Horseman of Death and later Horseman of Pestilence). His father named after the character from Shakespeare’s Tempest, monstrously referencing the character’s freakish nature. Caliban was never part of the Reavers in the comics, though in the House of M universe, he helped track down mutants for the Marauders.

This doesn't appear to be the same version of the character that we met in X-Men: Apocalypse, which would raise some timeline/continuity questions if any of that made any sense in this franchise in the first place.

X-23

- Laura, or X-23, first appeared on the rather underrated X-Men: Evolution animated series and then made her comic book debut in NYX, an unremarkable mutant comic from the early 2000s, as a teenaged prostitute with claws who didn't talk much. She didn't really come into her own until the X-23 limited series, which we'll get to in a minute.

Also note that you can spot "X-23" on Laura's medical sheet.

- Correct us if we're wrong, but there doesn't seem to be any wider comic book significance to her "mother" and the Gabriela Lopez name.

Zander Rice

- Dr. Zander Rice was introduced in X-23 #1 (2005) by Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, and Billy Tan. His film depiction is pretty faithful as he was the one in charge of Laura’s creation and his father was involved in Wolverine’s Weapon X experiments. Before he could make more clones and market them to the highest bidder, X-23 killed him.

- Transigen doesn’t seem to have a Marvel parallel, but you can see that it's tied to Alkali, which played so heavily in X2: X-Men United

- X-24, the mindless clone of Wolverine, is cosmetically made to resemble Liev Schreiber’s version of Sabretooth from X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Mentally, he’s more like Sabretooth from the first X-Men film. If you’re messing around a with an evil Wolverine, might as well press on the parallels. 

Not that we want to bring up too many memories of that movie, but why not just use Schreiber's Sabretooth here? The problems of that movie are well documented, but he wasn't one of them. This could have been a nice way to wrap things up and give a good actor a little redemption for a part he kind of got screwed on.

Donald Pierce and The Reavers

OK, so...Pierce and friends are considerably more flamboyant in the comics, but the basic mission here is the same. They've been annoying the hell out of Marvel's mutants since Uncanny X-Men #230.

- Donald Pierce even uses the slur “mutie” which hasn’t been deployed all that often in the course of this franchise. It ties in with the “border” parallels with our own troubled times.

- Before the final battle, one of the Reavers is shown standing up from inside a jeep with only his top half being visible. This is a nice visual nod to Bonebreaker, the most iconic member of the Reavers in the comics, whose bottom half is completely replaced with tank treads.

The New Mutants

No, not those New Mutants!

- We'll probably catch more of these names on another viewing (and if you did, please shout 'em out in the comments) but some of the names of the kids that Laura keeps repeating include: Rictor, Bobby, Jamaica, Rebecca, and Delilah.

Rictor, of course is a regular member of X-Force and later X-Factor with the power to create tremors. The power sets of the other kids don't seem to line up with any names, but again, if we're wrong, please shout it out and we'll correct 'em.

Speaking of Rictor...Who is the voice on the other end of Rictor’s radio?

What About Those Comics?

We wrote about those in more detail here, but the "vintage" X-Men comics you see in the movie aren't even real X-Men comics! They're new art by Joe Quesada and Dan Panosian.

For the record, we don't agree with Mr. Logan's assessment of superhero stories as "ice cream for bedwetters" but we can see how he might feel that way. Perhaps more important is the implication that this particular future might not even be the actual future of the X-Men movie franchise. It's almost like a subtle acknowledgment that the franchise's timeline and continuity are something of a mess. Either way, nothing changes the fact that Logan is an excellent movie.

Now, that doesn't mean that there aren't some cool things about them...

One of the covers of the in-universe X-Men comic shows Sauron. Created by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams in X-Men #59 (1969), Sauron is a man who mutated into a pterodactyl-like energy vampire and has been a regular threat to the team. While Sauron has yet to appear in an X-Men movie in the flesh, his real name Karl Lykos did appear when Mystique was searching through some computer files back in X-Men 2.

One of the other fake X-Men comics shows a fastball special. What's a fastball special? We're glad you asked...

That, my friends, is a fastball special.

Is Logan Really Dead?

We're going to go out on a limb here and say yes. At the very least, it's extraordinarily unlikely we'll ever see Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman play these roles ever again. While no bankable piece of intellectual property is likely to languish in a studio's filing cabinet for too long, the Jackman/Stewart era is over, and director James Mangold explained his reasoning for this to us here.

But again, don't be surprised if we end up with a new, younger Logan in future X-Men movies. After all, do you have any idea how many times he has died in the comics? Hint: it's a frakkin' lot.

Miscellaneous Mutations and Unanswered Questions

- Logan and Xavier briefly discuss an incident at the Statue of Liberty, which Logan says was a long, long time ago. The Statue of Liberty is where the climax to the first X-Men movie took place, back in 2000.

- Donald Pierce brings up Freddy Krueger, the clawed star of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. The similarities between Krueger and Wolverine were jokingly brought up in the first Transformers movie, too.

- Logan and Xavier's watertower hideout is owned by “A multi-national smelting company based in Shanghai.” For real, they couldn't have said "based in Madripoor" for a little additional comic authenticity? Movie ruined! (not really, this movie is amazing)

- Did anyone catch any of the other doctors' names on the Alkali/Transigen sheet? Pretty sure one of them was Henry something. Probably not Henry McCoy, though.

- Xavier and Laura watch the film Shane, which came out in 1953. Based on the novel by Jack Schaefer, it tells the story of a weary and grizzled gunslinger who finds himself playing hero while seeing himself as nothing more than a relic of a bygone era. Sound familiar?

- The Grant-Lee Phillips song playing in the bar is called "Find My Way"and it's pretty great and the lyrics are definitely appropriate for poor ol' Wolvie in this movie.

- Speaking of music, there’s a Dr. Acula poster in the son’s room. I don't know why this band is referenced in a movie that takes place 20-something years in the future, but they do indeed exist.

- Is it my imagination or did I spot a copy of The Once & Future King on the bookshelf in that house, too? That book was a recurring theme in X2: X-Men United.

- Is there any precedent from the comics for Xavier being into botany? I feel like it's worth noting that the plants he's tending are the only lush plant life we see until we get to “Eden” later in the film.

- In the cemetery scene, I couldn't help but notice prominent names on the headstones were Peters (as in Parker? haha!) and Rogers (as in Captain America?!?! not really). OK, it's a stretch, but it was in our notes.

- Pretty sure there's a Wilhelm scream during that chase.

So, what did we miss? Shout out your X-finds in the comments and if it checks out, we'll update this article! You can also hit Mike up directly on Twitter right here, or if you'd rather talk to Gavin about X-Men stuff, you can find him here!

Logan Ending Explained

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James Mangold explains his rationale for that shocking Logan ending. He also reveals its surprising Western influence.

NewsDavid Crow
Mar 2, 2017

This article contains major Logan spoilers!

Like so many other Western fables and legends, there's an air of tragedy permeating Logan. Here was a film about an old mutant whose equally old genes had caught up with him. No longer able to heal quickly, his decaying abilities were even causing the adamantium that laced his bones to begin poisoning his blood. Thus the chances of Wolverine walking away from this Hugh Jackman swan song always appeared slim.

Nevertheless, director James Mangold and company actually going there by killing off a major, franchised superhero was still something of a shock. As was that cold shudder felt as Wolverine closed his weary eyes. Suddenly, it really clicks that this is the last time we’d see Hugh Jackman in the muttonchops and claws. His daughter Laura wept at his passing, and there were probably a few misty eyes in your movie theater as well.

When I sat down with James Mangold last month to discuss the film, the subject of the Logan ending, and just whose idea it was between himself and Jackman, of course came up.

By Mangold’s recollection, it’s unclear who first pitched the idea of killing the feral anti-hero in Logan.

“I think it was always just as clear as day to both of us that that’s the way we’re going to end the story,” Mangold said. He even recalled that he and Jackman experienced no reticence about going that direction from 20th Century Fox. “I didn’t really get pushback. I think everyone recognized that, one way or another, that we were coming to the end of the longest run of any actor playing a significant character like this in a run of movies, and that we wanted to go out in a really interesting way.”

Mangold also suggested that a contributing factor was to make sure that nobody would question their assurance that this would be the last one for Jackman. And yet, he adds with a booming laugh of incredulity, he still had been asked that day by other journalists if this was really both his and Hugh’s last Wolverine movie.

“I have to say I’ve been amazed, because we thought this would be [done] in a way where no one would ask, ‘Are you sure you sure there won’t be more?’” Mangold mused. “And yet, somehow even when you kill him dead, people keep asking you, ‘Are you sure you’re done?!” The director chalks that up to the modern age of blockbuster sequels endlessly setting up more event films. “That whole thing is a sign of how little they trust us anymore.”

Still, the director did offer some tantalizing insight about what inspired the final scenes of the film. While Logan is steeped in reverence for Shane, even having Laura (Dafne Keen) recite Alan Ladd’s final words in that 1953 picture over Logan’s makeshift grave (and then turning his crucifix into an X), it is actually another Western entirely that inspired specific dynamics for the ending. Indeed, Mangold pointed me toward The Cowboys, a more obscure 1972 movie with John Wayne. In that film, Wayne dies while distracting some bad men from harming nearby boys he has taken under his employment as cattle drivers. After his death, the boys also build a modest grave for the Duke and then avenge him by killing the villainous Bruce Dern and his other rustling cohorts.

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“Certainly for me, the movie that weighed on me more than any other was the great Western The Cowboys with John Wayne,” Mangold said. “And you see it reflected in many things in this movie in a) the above the marquee star dying, and b) the way the children rally. You know in the way this very gruff and difficult rancher ends up coming to terms, and actually helping these 15 to 20 young boys all become men.”

That they do, and the young characters in Logan become mutants who can defend themselves too. Although, I suspect many audience members still might have liked to see Logan walk into that sunset with them.

Logan is in theaters now.


Eddie Brock is Back in Black in Venom #150

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In May, a special anniversary issue will have Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote bond once again after going well over a decade apart.

PreviewGavin Jasper
Feb 22, 2017

Usually, rubber-banding back to the status quo is the least surprising development that can happen in a comic. Yes, guys like Wolverine, Xavier, Cyclops, and Bruce Banner are currently dead, but we all know that they’ll be back eventually. That’s just how these things work. That’s why, on the surface, it shouldn’t be that surprising that this May, Eddie Brock will once again become the host for Venom.

But get this: Eddie Brock’s been separated from the Venom symbiote since the end of 2004! That’s a long-ass time to skew from the classic formula. That’s almost as long as Jean Grey’s been dead!

Regardless, it’s time to take it home. The current series has the alien costume attached to criminal scumbag Lee Price and as of Venom #6, Eddie will be taking back his old liquid clothes. This will lead to Venom #150...because...um, if you add all of Venom’s comics they will hit roughly 150 issues. Presumably. Probably not, but it sounds cool.

The main story will be by Mike Costa and Tradd Moore, but we’ll also get some interesting backups. Robbie Thompson and Gerardo Sandoval – the creative team from Venom: Space Knight– will fill in the blanks over why Flash Thompson is no longer Venom’s host. Meanwhile, Eddie Brock creator David Michelinie and Ron Lim will tell a tale that takes place back in the early 90s when Venom was a violent vigilante.

Although the alien costume was created in Secret Wars, Venom didn’t appear as a fully-formed concept until Amazing Spider-Man #300 in 1988. In 2004, Eddie Brock sold the symbiote to the mob while giving the money to charity. Eddie later became Anti-Venom, lost those powers, became the host for Toxin, gave up that symbiote during the Carnageseries, and is now just on his own. As for the symbiote, it bounced around from Angelo Fortunato to Mac Gargan to Flash Thompson to currently Lee Price.

Coincidentally, both Eddie and the costume are more intent on being better beings, but we’ll see if that holds up when they’re once again bonded.

Venom #150will be available this May.

Gavin Jasper misses the Anti-Venom design. Follow Gavin on Twitter!

Arrow Season 5 Episode 14 Review: Sin-Eater

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Arrow would have its heroes atone for their sins... which may be a wee bit overdramatic given how squeaky clean they are.

Arrow prides itself on being the dark, gritty and dangerous arm of the ever-growing DC TV Universe (a.k.a. Arrowverse, depending on your stomach for puns). Episode 14 of season 5, “Sin-Eater,” sought to revisit that darkness for a handful of the show’s core characters, only to inadvertently hang a lantern on the fact that far too many of them don’t have real sins to contend with at all.

The episode’s big ark had to do with the Green Arrow finally having to answer for his hand in the murder of Detective Billy Malone. The SCPD has had a big manhunt going on after it lost one of its own, and Oliver has been keeping the secret that season 5's big bad, Prometheus, manipulated him into killing the young officer. “Sin-Eater” dedicated a lot of screen time to the hero trying to grapple with the guilt he feels, even going as far as to claim the detective’s death was his fault.

He sought the advice of Quentin Lance, who was dealing with his own guilt after three former villains (Carrie Cutter, Liza Warner, and China White) escaped prison. The last time he saw Warner, he convinced her to go straight, but she fell off the wagon as soon as she saw he was working with Damien Darhk last year. He also seeks the advice of Felicity, who has spent all year feeling guilty for stopping a mess of nuclear missiles with the exception of the one that hit Havenroc. It’s at this point that we have to acknowledge that the dark turmoil that the show makes its focal point far too often comes with an asterisk.

Yes, Oliver killed Malone, but other than introducing Bruce Wayne, there’s no one on Earth that wouldn’t have been fooled. Arrow does a lot with high-concept villains and city-ending plots that are very much responsible for its enduring fanbase. However, after five seasons, the showrunners have not gotten out of their funk of manufacturing emotional arcs out of past insanity. In the comic books, we can turn out back on villains of the week with ease. The show, however, makes us marinate with it for several episodes before there’s any catharsis (or we can move on to something better).

If that’s going to be the formula, showrunners need to stop building back doors to protect character’s integrity like Lance being forced to work for Darhk, Diggle being tricked by the government, or, yes, Oliver not actually being responsible for Malone’s death. Honestly, at times the only one making sense in this episode was Thea, which brings us to the biggest highlight of this week.

Thea was back in a big way for “Sin-Eater.” Fans have previously complained that, after just becoming interesting in the latter half of season 3, Thea took a big back seat in season 5. Many have had enough change to the core group with the loss of Laurel and the addition of numerous new characters. As a result, it was refreshing to see Thea play a key part. Additionally, her presence came with a big dose of the much-lacking sin this episode was supposed to be talking about.

Oliver has been dating Susan Williams, his least-shipped relationship to date. Not only is she just not Felicity, but she’s been actively investigating him only to finally discover that he is the Green Arrow and didn’t spend the full five years stranded on Lian Yu. She confronted him with that knowledge this episode, which was a very boring way for this massive bombshell that’s been building over the course of 14 episodes to come out, because he easily deflected the question.

However, that wasn’t enough for Thea, who decided to team up with Felicity and burn Williams’ career straight the hell to the ground. For those that aren’t in the know, a plagiarism claim to a journalist is like a track star losing his or her leg. Oliver is rightfully furious, a woman who he (liked?) had her life ruined after all. At the same time, fans weren’t into this relationship, and it wasn’t fun to see him so hard on Thea and Felicity for their involvement in the caper. What finally made the arc interesting was how relatively unapologetic Thea was.

It feels weird to review “Sin-Eater” without talking about the trio of evil, known to some as the Star City Sirens. The girls were the main McGuffin of the episode and they all did a terrific job in their villainous roles. It’s also fun to see returning villains rather than brand new ones. After all, you don’t build an extended universe to not use it.

Sadly, the ladies doing a good job by being onscreen was it for the night. Those hoping to get a dose of girl power were sadly left lacking. There was no element of bonding between the ladies, therefore making them incredibly less formidable compared to Team Arrow. As for their big plan, they just beat up three groups of thugs and found a stash of money left behind by Tobias Church… The end. Perhaps it’s a matter of expectations rather than delivery. With The Flash taking on a gorilla-packed two-episode ark this week, and Legends of Tomorrow bringing the Legion of Doom to life, maybe people expected more from the returning trio than a one-off story.

Then again, with Prometheus’ identity still a mystery, several characters getting limited airtime, and a big cliffhanger regarding Mayor Queen covering up the murder of Malone, Arrow has its hands full without a new big bad.

2/5
ReviewTyler McCarthy
Feb 22, 2017

Meg: Release Date Delay, Cast, Story Synopsis and Everything to Know

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Meg will see Jason Statham battle a 70-foot shark. Here's everything to know.

NewsJoseph Baxter
Mar 3, 2017

Cinema’s favorite follicly-challenged, cockney ass-kicker Jason Statham will be taking on his biggest challenge to date in the form of a 70-foot prehistoric throwback of a shark in 2018’s Meg. The film, a long-gestating adaptation of Steve Alten’s popular novel series dating back to 1997, centers on a Navy veteran and paleontology Ph.D named Jonas Taylor who's nursing an old vendetta against a rare 70-foot, 70,000 lb. Cretaceous-era throwback of a shark in the Carcharadon Megalodon (or "Meg"). Jonas's objective involves a dangerous deep-sea rescue miles down the Mariana Trench.

For action film veteran Jason Statham, who normally handles business in stylized hand-to-hand combat, brandishing the occasional firearm, this effort represents a major departure, as he tackles a colossal, carnivorous killer in depths of darkness. Here’s everything current about Meg!

Meg Release Date:

In the latest development, the film, which had long been booked to hit theaters on March 2, 2018, just received a five-month delay. As of now, the Meg release date has been changed to August 10, 2018. The film will be released in 3D and IMAX formats. Meg will arrive under the production auspices of Warner Bros.

Meg Cast:

Jason Statham (The Transporter, The Expendables) plays protagonist Jonas Taylor, a deep sea diving expert with an impressive military background, who is recruited for a risky rescue mission, pitted against the titular, towering prehistoric shark.

Li Bingbing (Transformers: Age of Extinction, Resident Evil: Retribution), the cross-continental Chinese star plays Suyin, a reluctant cohort of Jonas's and the daughter of his mission's benefactor.

Jessica McNamee (CHiPs, Sirens) will play an apparently major character named Celeste.

Ruby Rose (John Wick: Chapter 2), Rainn Wilson (The Office), Robert Taylor (Longmire), Masi Oka (Heroes), Cliff Curtis (Fear the Walking Dead), Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (Emerald City), Page Kennedy (Weeds) and Winston Chao (Skiptrace) also fill the cast.

The above official image of Statham and Bingbing on the set first arrived in October 2016.

Meg Storyline:

Per the official synopsis:

A deep-sea submersible—part of an international undersea observation program—has been attacked by a massive creature, previously thought to be extinct, and now lies disabled at the bottom of the deepest trench in the Pacific…with its crew trapped inside. With time running out, expert deep sea rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Statham) is recruited by a visionary Chinese oceanographer (Winston Chao), against the wishes of his daughter Suyin (Li Bingbing), to save the crew—and the ocean itself—from this unstoppable threat: a pre-historic 75-foot-long shark known as the Megalodon. What no one could have imagined is that, years before, Taylor had encountered this same terrifying creature. Now, teamed with Suyin, he must confront his fears and risk his own life to save everyone trapped below…bringing him face to face once more with the greatest and largest predator of all time.

Meg Director:

In the director’s chair for Meg, is Jon Turteltaub, a helmer who reaped a successful action/suspense track record behind the camera for the two National Treasure films (with a third in the works). Nostalgic 90’s kids may also appreciate his work directing the original 3 Ninjas and Cool Runnings.

Turteltaub works off a screenplay by James Vanderbilt; a revision of an adaptation of Steve Alten’s novel drafted by Belle Avery, Dean Georgaris, Erich Hoeber and Jon Hoeber. Vanderbilt comes into the project having written films such as Independence Day: Resurgence, Solace, The Amazing Spider-Man (and its sequel), White House Down, The Losers, Zodiac and The Rundown.

Arrow Season 5 Episode 14 Review: Sin-Eater

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0

Arrow would have its heroes atone for their sins... which may be a wee bit overdramatic given how squeaky clean they are.

Arrow prides itself on being the dark, gritty and dangerous arm of the ever-growing DC TV Universe (a.k.a. Arrowverse, depending on your stomach for puns). Episode 14 of season 5, “Sin-Eater,” sought to revisit that darkness for a handful of the show’s core characters, only to inadvertently hang a lantern on the fact that far too many of them don’t have real sins to contend with at all.

The episode’s big ark had to do with the Green Arrow finally having to answer for his hand in the murder of Detective Billy Malone. The SCPD has had a big manhunt going on after it lost one of its own, and Oliver has been keeping the secret that season 5's big bad, Prometheus, manipulated him into killing the young officer. “Sin-Eater” dedicated a lot of screen time to the hero trying to grapple with the guilt he feels, even going as far as to claim the detective’s death was his fault.

He sought the advice of Quentin Lance, who was dealing with his own guilt after three former villains (Carrie Cutter, Liza Warner, and China White) escaped prison. The last time he saw Warner, he convinced her to go straight, but she fell off the wagon as soon as she saw he was working with Damien Darhk last year. He also seeks the advice of Felicity, who has spent all year feeling guilty for stopping a mess of nuclear missiles with the exception of the one that hit Havenroc. It’s at this point that we have to acknowledge that the dark turmoil that the show makes its focal point far too often comes with an asterisk.

Yes, Oliver killed Malone, but other than introducing Bruce Wayne, there’s no one on Earth that wouldn’t have been fooled. Arrow does a lot with high-concept villains and city-ending plots that are very much responsible for its enduring fanbase. However, after five seasons, the showrunners have not gotten out of their funk of manufacturing emotional arcs out of past insanity. In the comic books, we can turn out back on villains of the week with ease. The show, however, makes us marinate with it for several episodes before there’s any catharsis (or we can move on to something better).

If that’s going to be the formula, showrunners need to stop building back doors to protect character’s integrity like Lance being forced to work for Darhk, Diggle being tricked by the government, or, yes, Oliver not actually being responsible for Malone’s death. Honestly, at times the only one making sense in this episode was Thea, which brings us to the biggest highlight of this week.

Thea was back in a big way for “Sin-Eater.” Fans have previously complained that, after just becoming interesting in the latter half of season 3, Thea took a big back seat in season 5. Many have had enough change to the core group with the loss of Laurel and the addition of numerous new characters. As a result, it was refreshing to see Thea play a key part. Additionally, her presence came with a big dose of the much-lacking sin this episode was supposed to be talking about.

Oliver has been dating Susan Williams, his least-shipped relationship to date. Not only is she just not Felicity, but she’s been actively investigating him only to finally discover that he is the Green Arrow and didn’t spend the full five years stranded on Lian Yu. She confronted him with that knowledge this episode, which was a very boring way for this massive bombshell that’s been building over the course of 14 episodes to come out, because he easily deflected the question.

However, that wasn’t enough for Thea, who decided to team up with Felicity and burn Williams’ career straight the hell to the ground. For those that aren’t in the know, a plagiarism claim to a journalist is like a track star losing his or her leg. Oliver is rightfully furious, a woman who he (liked?) had her life ruined after all. At the same time, fans weren’t into this relationship, and it wasn’t fun to see him so hard on Thea and Felicity for their involvement in the caper. What finally made the arc interesting was how relatively unapologetic Thea was.

It feels weird to review “Sin-Eater” without talking about the trio of evil, known to some as the Star City Sirens. The girls were the main McGuffin of the episode and they all did a terrific job in their villainous roles. It’s also fun to see returning villains rather than brand new ones. After all, you don’t build an extended universe to not use it.

Sadly, the ladies doing a good job by being onscreen was it for the night. Those hoping to get a dose of girl power were sadly left lacking. There was no element of bonding between the ladies, therefore making them incredibly less formidable compared to Team Arrow. As for their big plan, they just beat up three groups of thugs and found a stash of money left behind by Tobias Church… The end. Perhaps it’s a matter of expectations rather than delivery. With The Flash taking on a gorilla-packed two-episode ark this week, and Legends of Tomorrow bringing the Legion of Doom to life, maybe people expected more from the returning trio than a one-off story.

Then again, with Prometheus’ identity still a mystery, several characters getting limited airtime, and a big cliffhanger regarding Mayor Queen covering up the murder of Malone, Arrow has its hands full without a new big bad.

2/5
ReviewTyler McCarthy
Feb 22, 2017

Ryan Gosling Boards Comic Book Adaptation The Underwater Welder

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Momentum-riding heartthrob Ryan Gosling will produce a movie adapting Jeff Lemire’s acclaimed graphic novel The Underwater Welder.

NewsJoseph Baxter
Mar 3, 2017

While ubiquitous industry adulation for La La Land wasn’t enough to yield Ryan Gosling a gold prize to match co-star Emma Stone at this year’s flub-overshadowed Oscars, he still happens to be one of the most highly-sought actors out there. However, it seems that Gosling has proactively sought a project in a film adaptation of an inventive, arguably avant-garde, graphic novel from a comic book writer and artist who’s also well-respected in the spandex hero book circles.

It is being reported (via Deadline) that Ryan Gosling will help develop a film adaptation of writer/artist Jeff Lemire’s 2012 Top Shelf/IDW-published graphic novel The Underwater Welder. Gosling joins the project as a producer, joining Kean Kao of Waypoint and Anonymous Content. Chris Staros of Top Shelf and Ted Adams of IDW are attached as executive producers. Yet, the obvious question asking if Gosling will star in the film is currently unanswered, since the project has yet to nab a director or screenwriter, much less confirmed cast members. In the afterglow of the La La Land awards season wins, Gosling will next appear in this month’s romcom Song to Song and this fall’s belated sci-fi follow-up Blade Runner 2049 before reuniting with director Damien Chazelle to star in the Neil Armstrong biopic First Man.

A New York Times bestseller, The Underwater Welder centers on a Nova Scotia diver named Jack Joseph. While Jack’s occupation regularly acquaints him with literal pressure, it appears that the figurative variety proves to be overwhelming when he learns he’s going to be a father. However, while Jack works beneath the sea repairing an oil rig, the story becomes an intriguing hybrid, dealing Jack’s alienation from his wife and unborn child (exemplified in the time-tested movie metaphor of SCUBA diving) and an apparent supernatural encounter he experiences that has a mind-blowing, life-altering effect. The story's tone has been compared to The Twilight Zone.

The report of Jeff Lemire’s passion project getting a movie coming on a day in which Hugh Jack’s final X-Men outing Logan hits theaters is coincidental, since Lemire was involved in the Marvel Comics movie-inspiring series Wolverine: Old Man Logan. Lemire’s work was also read in DC’s Justice League: Trinity War, Justice League Dark, Constantine, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The New Guard, Extraordinary X-Men, Moon Knight and Valiant’s Bloodshot Reborn.

The Underwater Welder certainly sounds like it could become one of the more interesting comic book adaptations to manifest in a long time.

Complete Upcoming X-Men Movies Schedule

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When will we see Deadpool 2, the Gambit movie, X-Men 7, or New Mutants? We have your upcoming X-Men movies schedule right here.

FeatureMike Cecchini
Mar 3, 2017

20th Century Fox has a Marvel superhero movie schedule that’s quite nearly as busy as Marvel Studios’ for the next few years. Even with the failure of the FantasticFour, they've got enough X-Men characters to keep everyone neck deep in mutants until further notice. The studio recently added 2 new "Untitled Marvel Movie" dates to their calendar, and removed the one that had previously been scheduled for October 6th, 2017, which everyone previously assumed was Gambit, but that remains a troubled production. 

Deadpool was a runaway success for the studio in 2016, and Logan looks like it's going to follow in that movie's edgy footsteps. New Mutants and Deadpool 2 are about to go into production, with X-Men: Supernova to follow shortly after. 

Watch X-Men movies on Amazon

But as for the other dates on the X-Men movie schedule? That's when things get a little tricky. We've done our best to sort everything out for you, but most of those dates don't have movies tied to them and vice versa. Let's give it a shot anyway.

March 3, 2017

Logan

Logan is in theaters right now. Why are we keeping it here a little longer? Simple. Because it is literally the only one of these movies with an official release date at the moment. You can read our spoiler-free review of the movie here, a spoiler-filled discussion of it's ending here, and an even more spoilery unpacking of every Marvel reference in the movie here.

So let's have a look at the rest and what they might be.

March 2, 2018

Most likely suspect: Deadpool 2

We have to mention Deadpool 2 here because it has been confirmed that this one is happening with the same creative team that made the first one such a good time...minus the director. Whoops. Drew Goddard is helping out with the script, too, which is a good thing.

The problem is, they haven't confirmed a release date, but it will probably go into production this May. That means there's a chance Deadpool 2 could be finished in time and this March release date could yield similar box office results for another R-rated superhero outing.

Watch Deadpool on Amazon

But still, that's a fast turnaround. Don't be surprised if this date falls off the Marvel/Fox schedule.

Now, here's where we get into even more uncharted territory. There are currently THREE unclaimed slots on Fox's calendar, which they've reserved for Marvel movies. The dates in question are...

June 29, 2018

November 2, 2018

February 14, 2019

While it's possible that one of those 2018 dates could end up being the Deadpool 2release, it's equally likely reserved for one of these other upcoming X-Men projects.

The New Mutants

Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) will direct a New Mutants movie. Boone will also co-write the film with Knate Gawley, Scott Neustadter, and Michael H. Weber   

The New Mutants were the first of Marvel's X-Men spinoffs in the comics, dealing with a younger crop of gifted youngsters as the core X-Men cast expanded and aged. Danielle Moonstar, Wolfsbane, Sunspot, Cannonball, Magik, and Warlock will all be part of the team, making for a more racially diverse cast than we've seen in most X-Men movies so far.

Learn more about the New Mutants right here!


X-Men: Supernova

Little is known about this at the moment, but it's due to begin production in Montreal later this year. This would be the proper X-Men 7that New Mutants most certainly is not. Simon Kinberg is probably going to direct this one.

The obvious speculation here is that we'll finally get a version of the Dark Phoenix Saga done properly this time around. We've written extensively about why that's a good idea right here.

gambit movie

Gambit

With Logan marking the last time Hugh Jackman will play Wolverine, the X-Men films are bound to find themselves in dire need of a new heroic "face of the franchise" some time in the next five years, and Channing Tatum as Gambit might just be the answer.

A proven box-office draw like Tatum playing a sly, shady X-Man might be the way to go. Gambit's complex backstory should provide ample fodder for a solo movie, which will apparently focus less on traditional superheroics and more on his background as a thief. Everyone loves Deadpool, but clearly he (the character, not Ryan Reynolds) doesn't have the leading man looks of a Channing Tatum. Lea Seydoux will likely play opposite Tatum as Bella Donna.

Of course, the big problem here is that Gambit recently lost director Doug Liman, and there is continual chatter that they haven't even gotten the script right yet. Not to mention the fact that they keep moving this troubled project off various release dates. We're sure it will happen eventually, but whether it still involves Liman, Tatum, or Seydoux when it does is another story.

X-Force

Jeff Wadlow’s early X-Force draft was met with vocal approval from X-Force co-creator, Rob Liefeld. The above concept art comes from that era of the film's development. The problem is, it doesn't look like Mr. Wadlow is still involved in this one, but Joe Carnahan just came on board to write a script, and that guy knows action movies. The X-Force movie would also feature another potential Wolverine “replacement” with Cable, another charismatic good guy who operates close to the edge.

We're going to first meet Cable in Deadpool 2, so you have to figure that we won't see X-Force until after that movie comes out. It's possible that X-Force could essentially focus as Deadpool 3 if they decide to pursue the same tone. 

What do you think? What else do you think can make it onto the X-Men movie calendar? Let us know!

The X-Men Movies You Never Saw

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Logan is the 10th movie starring Marvel's merry mutants. But not every X-Men movie has made it to the screen...

FeatureMike Cecchini
Mar 3, 2017

The X-Men franchise is alive, well, and living large in Hollywood. The latest X-Men movie, Logan, is receiving rave reviews, and might just be the franchise's finest hour. It definitely feels like the closing of one chapter, and it's amazing that we ever even got this far.

After almost 20 years and ten installments, it's becoming hard to envision a world before X-Men movies. But getting the X-Men from the page to the screen for the first time took years, and there were a number of potential X-Men films from notable Hollywood talent that stalled before making it to production. Then there are projects like X-Men Origins: Magneto (which became something else entirely), Deadpool(which was long dead before we finally got it last year), and Gambit(which is starting to look like it might never get made).

Watch X-Men movies on Amazon

This isn't intended to be a comprehensive or exhaustive listing of every unproduced X-Men screenplay. Instead, I've focused on a series of drafts that had the best chance of getting made. Not included are re-writes of existing X-Men films (like Joss Whedon's discarded overhaul of the first X-Men movie and other early drafts that essentially just became the first film) and early drafts of movies that got made with some changes (David Benioff and Skip Woods' Deadpool-less X-Men Origins: Wolverine for example). 

Mostly, though, I only thought it fair to write about ones I've actually read. If you have others, please get in touch...

Wolverine and the X-Men (1991)

Who wrote it?

Gary Goldman, who you may remember from his work on films like Total Recall, Big Trouble in Little China, and Navy Seals. Somewhere in the mix of those three films, if you squint hard enough, you could possibly see the DNA of an X-Men movie.

Who’s in it?

Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, Professor Xavier, Magneto (who goes by the name of Thomas Prince), Jason Wyngarde/Mastermind, Angel (as Warren Worthington).

What’s it about?

In the days before the world knows that mutants exist, Wolverine and Professor Xavier recruit Kitty Pryde, and learn of a man named Thomas Prince. Prince is an industrialist with political ambitions who is effectively stirring up anti-mutant hysteria, which he whips into a frenzy when he recruits Jason Wyngarde (Mastermind) from the X-Men’s roster to help use his mental powers to frame them.

The frame-up is so successful that almost immediately, the mutant witch hunts begin, and Prince (along with his superhumanly strong associate, Atalanta) hit the presidential campaign trail while the X-Men face the death penalty for murder. Prince turns out to be a “master of magnetism” and his plan is to incite a race war that, naturally, mutants will win. He loses.

Is it any good?

Not really. Even by superhero movie standards, Gary Goldman’s draft of Wolverine and the X-Men is overly simplistic, full of stilted dialogue and exposition, and lacks the life we see in other genre films he worked on. There could be something to this story, if only the pacing weren’t so bizarre. Humanity goes from not knowing of the existence of the X-Men or mutants to mounting a televised execution of the team in a matter of pages. Not even James Cameron could have saved this one.

Why didn't it happen?

The title page of this draft (dated June 18th, 1991) says it's for James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment and Carolco pictures. That lines up with Chris Claremont's recollection of pitching an X-Men movie to Cameron around that time.

Stan Lee also brought up a character named Spider-Man at that meeting, and we all know where that went...but that's another article.

X-Men (1994)

Who wrote it?

Andrew Kevin Walker, right before he went on to fame as the writer of Se7enthe following year. Walker also wrote a Batman vs. Superman screenplay, which I wrote about in more detail right here.

Who’s in it?

The original X-Men team of Professor Xavier, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Beast, and Angel...plus Wolverine. And then there's the baddies: Magneto, Toad, Sabretooth, Blob, Juggernaut, Henry Peter Gyrich, Bolivar Trask. It's quite a lot.

What’s it about?

This film opens with a world that is already on its way to the anti-mutant dystopia of Days of Future Past, with the Mutant Registration Act passed and in the midst of implementation. The government is even building Sentinels. Magneto decides that the best way to handle this is to isolate Manhattan and declare it a haven for mutants. Sensible enough.

The X-Men, of course, have other ideas. The original team from 1963's X-Men #1 recruits shady Canadian operative Wolverine, and they go head to head with Magneto and his Brotherhood with the fate of New York City at stake, while also dealing with the US Government’s Sentinels. 

Is it any good?

Yes!!!

From the earliest pages, this is a much more lively read than Gary Goldman’s story. It’s also impossibly action-packed, with Magneto and the Brotherhood destroying a number of New York City landmarks in order to cut Manhattan off from the rest of the world. 

This would have been one of the more comic book faithful X-Men films, though. From the adherence to the original team, to appearances from X-Men supporting players like Canada’s Department H (who Wolverine still works for), Henry Peter Gyrich, a non-Peter Dinklage Bolivar Trask, and even NYC’s supervillain prison, The Vault...this would have made fans quite happy.

Why didn't it happen?

This draft is dated June 7th, 1994, and at this point, the X-Men rights had migrated from Carolco to 20th Century Fox (where they remain to this day). According to Geeks of Doom (who have a great article about this version), "Walker’s drafts received good notices from the studio, but they were not enough to move the development of an X-Men feature forward."

The problem may also reside in the scale of the film itself, which contains scenes of the destruction of plenty of New York City landmarks. This may seem like nothing these days, but in 1995, well...this could have been an expensive one to film.

Wolverine and the X-Men (1995)

Who wrote it?

Laeta Kalogridis, who you may recognize as executive producer and writer of the upcoming Terminator: Genesis. She also has writing credits on films like Shutter Island (on which she also served as executive producer), and Night Watch. Ms. Kalogridis also wrote an unproduced Wonder Woman screenplay, which we'll get around to at some point.

Who’s in it?

Professor Xavier, Cyclops, Wolverine, Jubilee, Storm, Jean Grey, Beast, Gambit, Magneto, Pyro, Sabretooth, Blob, Mystique, Scarlet Witch

What’s it about?

The usual. Wolverine is fresh from his adamantium treatment and memory wipe when he is found by the X-Men, roughly at the same time as a young girl named Jubilation Lee is manifesting her first mutant abilities. The two end up with the team, who end up in battle with Magneto and his Brotherhood, who (of course) wish to wipe out humanity with the Legacy virus.

Is it any good?

Yes. It’s a punchy, tight read, although somewhat compressed. It’s thoroughly action-packed, and the team on display mirrors that of the wildly popular X-Men: The Animated Series of the ‘90s.

Less ambitious than Andrew Kevin Walker’s draft, this one would have been a little easier to film. The plot is a bit simplistic, but there’s rarely a few pages without some kind of massive action sequence, and there’s a dynamite one-on-one with Wolverine and Sabertooth (and another with Wolverine and Magneto) in the climax.

Why didn't it happen?

We don't know. This draft is dated August 18th, 1995, less than a year after Walker's second draft from October of '94. I presume this one falls under the "good notices from the studio, but..." that befell Andrew Kevin Walker's version, although it wouldn't have required the insane budget that film might have.

X-Men (1996)

Who wrote it?

Michael Chabon. We love him for brilliant comic book literary faux-history like The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay and his story credit on Spider-Man 2. Recently, you've seen his name on John Carter, but the screenplay wasn't necessarily the problem on that one, and besides, that movie isn't nearly as bad as it gets made out to be. ANYWAY...

Who’s in it?

Professor Xavier, Wolverine, Jubilee, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Nightcrawler, Beast, Storm, The Hellfire Club (sorta...not really).

What’s it about?

The X-Men welcome both Jubilee and Wolverine into their ranks in a world where mutations are already carefully monitored by the government. The Legacy virus is already spreading, and Wolverine is a carrier (albeit immune) and he inadvertently infects several of his new teammates.

Is it any good?

It’s difficult to tell from this 18 page treatment (dated July 17th, 1996). This certainly would have been a far more cerebral X-Men film than we’ve been accustomed to, with a faintly dystopian vibe, no obvious villains, and a Wolverine who is tame for much of the first half of the film. Unless this was expanded by other writers (missing from our archives are drafts by John Logan and James Schamus, but I'm not sure where they fall in the chronology).

Why didn't it happen?

No clue. Considering that this never made it past the treatment stage, though, we can guess. This is, far and away, the brainiest, most inward-looking film on this list. The thing is, when you're trying to make a blockbuster with a nine figure budget, that isn't always a good thing.

X-Men Origins: Magneto (roughly 2008)

Who wrote it?

Sheldon Turner of The Longest Yard and Up in the Airfame. He also got a story credit on X-Men: First Class, potentially because of some similarities in Magneto's journey in that film.

Who’s in it?

Magneto and Charles Xavier. There are hints of Sabertooth, Beast, Mystique, and some others hidden throughout, as well.

What’s it about?

The story of Erik Lehnserr’s life after Auschwitz, his struggles to accept himself, and his journey as a Nazi hunter seeking revenge on the men who tormented him. Eventually, he meets up with a man named Charles Xavier, who harbors a secret of his own. Sound a little familiar? It is, but don't be fooled. This is much less flashy than ANY X-Men movie, produced or unproduced.

Is it any good?

Yes. It’s low key and even introspective, but never boring. It's easy to imagine Michael Fassbender handling this one (although this was long before he was a possibility). The "older" Magneto appears at the beginning and the end to kind of keep things consistent. It would have been bound to cause some continuity problems, but as we've seen recently, that really isn't all that important.

Why didn’t it happen?

David Goyer was set to direct this one, but, of course, it eventually morphed into X-Men: First Class, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Goyer commented on it in 2013. "They definitely took some elements from our script.” Which is true, but they did at least give Sheldon Turner a story credit on X-Men: First Class.

Deadpool 

Wait a minute...they actually made this movie?!? And it was amazing? 

When this article first ran a few years ago (and before Deadpool finally got the green light), I noted that while the script was hilarious, it was "unfilmable by conventional superhero movie standards." If you want a more detailed look at the 2010 script and how it differed from the movie, I give you Gavin Jasper's brilliant article on the subject right here.

BONUS ENTRY!

X-Men (1984)

Who wrote it?

Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas, two noted comic book writers who also wrote Fire & Iceand Conan the Destroyer. Yeah.

Who’s in it?

Professor X, Kitty Pryde, Cyclops, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Storm, and Circe.

What’s it about?

A not wheelchair-bound Charles Xavier gathers his first team of X-Men in order to defeat an organization known as Proteus and a giant mutant island that wants to become a new continent (kinda like Krakoa from Giant-Size X-Men #1).

Is it any good?

I can’t say in good conscience, as I haven’t read the actual screenplay, only a synopsis courtesy of Back Issuemagazine. It's definitely weirder than most of the other entries on here, though. It's tough to tell how it would play as a movie from a detailed synopsis.

Why didn’t it happen?

At this stage of the game, Orion Pictures were developing X-Men, but it's unclear when things ended up at Carolco, or where it went in between. We'll keep looking for more info, though.

Thanks to Nick Harley for helping me out with the research for this one!

Got any unproduced superhero screenplays you think I haven't read? Let's talk on Twitter!


NOTE: This article originally appeared on May 28th, 2014. It has been updated to reflect the fact that Deadpool was actually made, for one thing.

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